Dogs. Dawgs. Other critters. Life as Oliver Wendell Douglas. Live heirlooms, both flora and fauna. Self-sufficiency. Suffering not a fool to live. Land stewardship. Turnip trucks, and those who have not fallen therefrom. Training things. Growing things. Search and rescue. What is this bug and what is it doing under my desk light?
Embracing the reality that Nature Bats Last.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Use Names

When they go to their permanent homes, the Roseannadannas will get their permanent names.

Each will have a registered name and a regular name, chosen by their new families. Their registered names will begin with "Brandywine" and then generally be or contain their regular names. Nothing too fancy. They won't be trotting circles for the approval of some schlub in a monkey suit, so there's no need for chest-thumping when naming them. Just something unique that will make it possible to identify them in pedigrees. There are just eighteen possible registered names that their new humans cannot choose from, so it's pretty wide open. And they can call the dog whatever they wish. That's his real name, the one to which he answers. One does well to consider this task weighty, but not solemn.

Meanwhile, they need baby names, Earthsean use names, as they learn to become individuals.

So, some introductions.

Jane is a petite little girl, either black and white or very dark seal. She can howl. It doesn't sound exactly like a howl, but she throws her little nose up when she does it, and this summons her mother.

Bill is the smallest boy. He is seal and white. He is going to have totally adorable big freckles. Right now he just looks like he has a dirty face. He already shows a beautiful structure. A cuddle pup.

Laraine is a dark-faced beauty -- that little white dot on her head will be gone soon. She's a big girl, just like her Aunt Tia, whom she resembles. She's one of the two most adventurous of the pups.

Garrett is a big boy, who will look like his grandma Pip. He's also an adventurer and the first to conquer the walls of the now-defunct Moses basket.

Gilda is a petite thing who will look like her Mom, except for her coloring -- dainty limbs and ultra-feminine head and face. She is the blackest, glossiest black. She loves to snuggle.

Chevy is the biggest puppy, nearly twice as big as Gilda. He likes to talk, and growl, and issue complaints. He resembles his Uncle Moe and (social) Uncle Cole. So if Cole is Mini-Moe, Chevy is Micro-Moe. He's already a little pisser, and I am already working on extra conditioning with him, because he's going to be a handful. He may also be a very dark seal.

6 comments:

Jane, Bill, Laraine, Garrett, Gilda and Chevy, very nice to meet you one by one. I am trying very hard to make arrangements to come out and meet all of you. Plus the farm you live on and all the other creatures, great and small, that share the earth with you. Looking forward to the next update!

I swear to Dog, if I find one more Wilson's Shep or Penny or Dixie or whatever in a pedigree who is not an already-known dog of that name ...

If your last name is Wilson, choose a different damned registered name. Wilson's Good Shep is quite acceptable. Wilson's Lucky Penny. I do not care.

Or another pedigree for "Mann's Texas Ranger" who may or may not be the one, or two, or who knows how many, "Mann's Texas Rangers."

It is one thing if you have had a registry tagging numbers onto each animal since the start of record-keeping, and actually publishing a studbook. Though why it is more respectful for a dog to be anonymous until you recite the 6439 after his name eludes me.

Don't even get me started on the name changes. Every time a dog changed hands, they'd change his damned *registered* name. Leading to our ex post facto "Are you the Daddy?" mysteries. Oh, and dual- and triple-registered dogs with two or three different registered names.

The #1 job of a registry is to keep an accurate accounting of the genetic history (and present state) of a breed. The commercial registries utterly failed to do so.